Maine Senator Susan Collins (R) to Introduce Mercury Monitoring Legislation to Develop Defensible Mercury Emissions Data

Senator Collins of Maine has long contended the EPA's computer model used in forming its CAMR was flawed, or at least not peer-reviewed. Since recent studies have found the existence of regional mercury hotspots the concern is that cap-and-trade policy is also flawed. She will co-sponsor legislation next week to fund a comprehensive national monitoring program of mercury in our environment. An excerpt from Energy Central Professional (subscription required) and the AP follows;

This legislation would authorize $18 million in fiscal year 2008, $13 million in fiscal year 2009, $14 million in fiscal year 2010, and additional funding through 2013 for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States Geological Survey, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to create a nationwide mercury monitoring program. The legislation would establish mercury monitoring sites across the nation in order to measure mercury levels in the air, rain, soil, lakes and streams, and in plants and animals. The legislation would provide new data to help address the flaws in EPA`s existing mercury data, based largely on a computer model, which was used to justify the flawed Clean Air Mercury Rule issued in 2005.

"This legislation would create a comprehensive nationwide mercury monitoring network to provide sound mercury measurements that EPA sorely needs," said Senator Collins. "I was deeply troubled by the computer data which EPA used to justify its mercury rule. This data was neither peer- reviewed nor verified with scientific measurements, and yet EPA used as the basis for its mercury rule which does not account for mercury hotspots and which places children and pregnant women at risk. Hopefully, the new measurements provided by this legislation will form the basis for a new mercury rule which adequately protects human health and environment." Senators Collins and Lieberman met with EPA Administrator Johnson in 2005 in order to express concerns over the EPA`s proposed Clean Air Mercury Rule. At that time, Johnson misrepresented the mercury problem based on computer measurements which were not peer-reviewed and which were not verified with scientific measurements.

The full AP / ECP article can be read here (subscription may be required).